Kids Gone Cops! ‘Road Safety Patrol’ Battalion of St Theresa’s School All Geared Up for Traffic Control
Mangaluru: With thousands of vehicles transporting over lakhs of children to and from school every morning and evening, areas around schools has become a traffic nightmare. Not just for motorists and pedestrians, but most importantly, for school-going children. Several schools in the city are in clusters and with crowds at the gates, it often hampers the flow of regular traffic, especially on busy roads. The result: unmanned traffic, accidents, time wasted, traffic jams and huge risks to school children. The solution is to ease traffic congestion around schools during opening and closing hours. Why is this important: It’s a growing problem that needs to be addressed, given that the number of vehicles is on a steady increase. Also, accidents involving school children are on the rise. Who are the culprits: Parents in four and two-wheelers, auto rickshaw drivers, maxi cabs, mini school buses, and private buses.
Unprecedented in scale, the city’s mounting traffic congestion has pushed every management strategy to the edge. But as the traffic police struggle, another mammoth crisis has hit Mangaluru roads magnifying the problem manifold: Crowding of vans and personal cars outside schools in the busy city streets. The extreme congestion sparked off by the inflow and outflow of school vehicles unleashes virtual gridlocks on many City roads including St Agnes College/Bendore Road, and a dozen streets in the vicinity. Scurrying for clues to resolve this rising problem, many parents and citizens are asking school management to find parking for their vehicles within the campus. One parent said that an attempt after a meeting with the management met with only limited success since many schools reported that they had no space within, even when there was a scope for it.
Combing a child’s hair, a parting kiss and last-minute instructions from inside the car and right outside the school gate—a perfect recipe for a traffic jam and the resultant noise and honking. School authorities blame this everyday scene for the chaos that disturbs the neighbourhood. “Arrival of students by cars is a nightmare. It slows down traffic and then drivers begin to honk constantly,” said a nearby resident that houses two schools, St Agnes Institution, Bendore; and St Theresa’s School, near Horticulture. Ironically, the area around an educational institution is considered a silence zone.
The city has hundreds of schools with thousands of students each, many of them situated in narrow bylanes. The civic authority has an internal department to study traffic density and road networks and ensure that all proposed school buildings have ample parking inside their premises. Sources reveal that in spite of several schools have also written to traffic police but their complaints have not evoked an adequate response. Traffic cops, on their part, said they were making efforts. The problem is that several schools have their entrance right on arterial roads. During peak hours, multiple vehicles ferrying students cause snarls as they all assemble at one spot. In order to ease some of the traffic chaos near the school during peak hours, the School Management has taken the help of Students along with a bunch of parents to tackle the morning rush hour mess.
St Theresa’s School, located near Horticulture, Bendore has once again geared up to complete 10 years of its silent revolution in traffic safety initiative. The ‘Road Safety Patrol’ {RSP} launched on 24 July 2008 by the then IGP {Western Range} Ashit Mohan Prasad is back in action, comprising of 50 students, around 25 girls and 25 boys, who in small groups man the road in front of the School gate every morning during peak hours, under the guidance of Mangaluru Traffic Warden Sujith Noronha. These RSP’s who are trained in traffic management, manage traffic in front of their school gate, they also help in opening the car doors, help children get out of the vehicle and walk them safely into the school premises. Talk about a Royal Treatment?
It is learnt that the RSP battalion also takes part in Republic Day and Rajotsava parade every year. The “Student Cops” clad in fluorescent orange jackets over their school uniforms, along with the help of a bunch of school children parents and Traffic Warden Noronha control and ease out many traffic-related problems, for a smooth flowing of vehicles without giving any scope for traffic jams. Sujith Noronha speaking to Team Mangalorean said, “After we introduced these RSP’s to handle some of the traffic issues here near the school, we have seen motorists becoming more obedient and give respect when these RSP’s ask them not to violate traffic rules. The system has been going on well, and there has been no traffic chaos these days. However, motorists also need to cooperate with us in order to maintain traffic law and order”.
Now that the Students in the form of “Road Safety Patrol” battalion are doing one heckuva job in at least controlling part of the traffic menace, but the absence of traffic police personnel is also worsening the situation and reckless driving of private bus drivers cause uneasiness for parents. Many parents demand permanent posting of police personnel outside the schools. Sources reveal that a joint meeting was held between school management, parents, police authorities long ago-the initial response was encouraging, but gradually after the meeting, not much seems to have changed. Try going through a school zone during peak school hours and you will see for yourself that chaos still reigns all around. In the meantime, let’s thank these young RSP’s for their efforts and dedication in trying to control traffic and help their schoolmates enter the campus safely. RSP simply Rocks!